Reprieve
by Tarawr
Summary: While in college, The Order gets in contact with Walter in attempts to get their Summoner to return.


**A/N: **Heya, guys. Just some little story I slapped together telling of Walter in his college days. It has an original character, and for that, I'm sorry. I tried my hardest not to make her annoying. I hope you enjoy!

Hundreds of students scurried across the clean, green lawn of Pleasant River University, desperate to get to their classes before they were late. It was a perfect sunny morning, but there was a definite chill in the air. It was obvious that autumn was creeping along.

Walter lay back on his window bench and surveyed the campus through his window with tired green eyes. He ran a hand over his face and up through his messy blond hair, making it even messier.

He was debating on whether or not showing up to class today was in his best interest. He didn't feel that great physically. He had acquired a small cold over the weekend. Nothing major. His nose was just a little stuffy and his muscles were sore.

He felt worse mentally. He just didn't think he could put up with… people… today.

Walter looked over to a letter that was lying on his kitchen counter. It had been waiting for him one morning outside of his door. The envelope was dark crimson and almost foreboding in a strange way. He had reluctantly picked it up, and his heart nearly stopped when he saw the Halo of the Sun etched on the front.

It took him nearly the entire day to get up the courage to read the letter contained within. When he came back to his dorm from his classes, he finally opened the envelope and looked at the note with great unease.

He hadn't heard from The Order since he left Wish House, nearly two years ago. He was hoping that he never had to hear from them again. Walter just wanted normality now. He wanted to be a normal college student and carry on with a normal career, move into a normal house in a normal neighborhood.

But it was obvious as he read the letter that The Order didn't want this for him. They wanted their conjurer back. They wanted Paradise to arrive…

Walter realized that he had been staring daggers at the letter from across the room, and tore his gaze from it. He looked out the window and noticed that a girl with black rimmed glasses and shoulder-length brown hair was gazing up at his window as she walked slowly along to her class, books hugged tightly to her chest.

It was Cassie. He knew her. Or… at least, he knew of her. They had eaten together once or twice. She poked him playfully if they ever crossed paths on their way to class. Once, they had even run into each other outside of campus grounds at a local bookstore.

Cassie had tried to start a conversation up with Walter, but the poor girl barely got a sentence out of him. Once she realized that he wasn't going to say much else, she smiled sadly, waved and let him be as she ran off to rejoin her friends.

Walter snapped back into reality and noticed that Cassie had started to wave up at his window. For some reason, he tensed up and rolled off of his window bench and landed on the hardwood floor, out of her line of sight.

Walter was definitely staying in his dorm today.

He picked himself up off the floor and swiped a tissue out of a box from his coffee table. He wiped it over his nose a few times, threw it in his trashcan and wandered back over to his window reluctantly. Cassie had gone. There wasn't a single person left outside.

A knock came at his door and Walter tensed. He turned around, but kept near the window. He stupidly stared at the door for almost a minute until he heard the knocking again.

He jerked in surprise but started carefully for the door. On his way to it, he tossed the letter that he had received from The Order down the hallway like an unwanted Frisbee. Walter grabbed the handle and slowly turned it. He peaked out the very small crack that he had created and saw Cassie standing about a foot away from the door.

She smiled sweetly in at him and pushed her glasses farther up her nose.

He got nervous around her. He got nervous around most women, but especially Cassie. He had been taught during his time at Wish House that women outside of The Order were not to be trusted.

"_No matter how innocent they may seem," _Dahlia had once told him. _"This is fleeting. Beneath this appearance lies an evil so powerful that it will drain you of your very essence."_

Cassie did seem very innocent. And she did seem to want something from Walter. His essence?

"Hey, Walter," Cassie said from her spot in the hallway. "Why aren't you going to class today?"

The door was still open merely a sliver. He could see her, but all she could really see was his eye staring back at her.

He cleared his throat and quietly retorted, "Why aren't you?"

"I'd normally have pre-calc this period, but my mom teaches it, so... already did that assignment." She shrugged and chuckled. "Are you skipping?"

"Not exactly," Walter said.

"You sick? Your voice sounds kinda scratchy." Cassie reached forward and pushed the door gently open.

Before Walter regained his senses well enough to stop her from coming inside, she had already closed the door behind her and was observing him. She frowned as she looked at his nose.

"Aww, your nose is so red…" She cooed. Cassie took his hand and led him over to the couch. "Sit there. I'll be right back."

Cassie left his dorm room and disappeared out into the hall. What she was doing, he hadn't the foggiest, but this was a little uncomfortable for him. He had never in his life been alone with a woman. And what made it even worse is that she was being _nice _to him. When someone was nice to Walter, it usually didn't lead to anything good.

He briefly thought about locking the door, but then he noticed her stack of books resting on his kitchen table. She would have to come back for them either way.

Walter sighed to himself as he lay back on his couch and closed his eyes, focusing on the way that his sore muscles throbbed. About five minutes later, he was nearly asleep when Cassie came walking back in with a large box. It didn't appear to be heavy.

Cassie set the box on the floor and dragged four chairs out into the open space of the living room, setting them in a rectangle formation with their backs facing one another. She went back over to the box and flipped the lid open, dragging out a wispy thin blue sheet and tying each corner to the backrests of the chairs. Once the large main sheet was secured, she grabbed two more sheets and fastened them to the sides with clothes pins.

At this point, Walter had been sitting up on the couch for some time, watching her with curiosity. She dipped her hand back into the box and grabbed an unzipped sleeping bag, disappearing beneath the proverbial blanket fortress for a moment. She crawled back out and looked at Walter with a smile.

"Well?" She asked. "Whaddya think?"

He looked at Cassie for a moment, then back at the tent. "W-what… is it, exactly?"

A look of what may have been concern flashed over Cassie's face. "It's a blanket tent. You've never made a blanket tent before?"

He slowly shook his head, his long hair waving with each move. He looked at said tent to try to decipher its purpose.

"Well…" Cassie began. "You're supposed to go inside of it. It's kind of like a hideout." She kicked off her shoes and crouched down in front of it, looking over at Walter. "Come on."

Cassie crawled into the tent, and once she realized that Walter wasn't making any effort to enter, she poked her head out from between the sheets. He stood nervously and walked over to her. Cassie held the sheet open for him and he slowly crawled in and settled in the middle.

She smiled over at him. Her legs were stretched out in front of her and her arms were supporting her from behind. "My mom always did this with me when I got sick. I dunno why, but it always seemed to help."

His face twitched a little as her words echoed in his head. _My mom always did this with me..._

_Mom…_

Just like that, his mind was elsewhere. His thoughts were filled with his Mother, in South Ashfield. He had to get her, had to wake her up…

Walter tried to shake the thoughts off. He didn't want that anymore… he would allow his mother to remain dormant. As long as she slumbered, he had a chance at a normal life.

Yet, the thought of being safe within his mother, away from all of the sin, vice and sadness in the world, never having to worry about being talked down to, or receiving glances of disgust…

He slowly laid back and looked at the "ceiling" of the tent. Walter imagined it would feel a lot like this. Calm, dark and safe.

Walter pulled himself forcefully from his thoughts. He tried to convince himself that he didn't want Mother to wake, even though a voice in the back of his mind taunted him, saying, "You know that it's the thing you want most."

"Walter?"

He was thrown out of his battle with himself, and he jerked his head from his lying position to look up at Cassie.

"You okay?"

He didn't respond. Just kept staring at her. Was she after anything, or was she truly just a concerned person?

"Come now," The voice that only Walter could hear said. "Has anyone in your whole life just been 'concerned' about you? They always wanted something…"

He did his best to shake the voice off as Cassie carefully pulled his head into her lap. Walter wasn't sure what she was doing, until she began stroking his long hair soothingly. Walter had seen this done before in media, and a few times he had witnessed people doing it with his own eyes.

A part of him felt like telling her to stop, but another part of him embraced it, even going so far as to close his eyes and imagine that Cassie was his mom, stroking him lovingly and professing what a wonderful and perfect son he was.

It was all he wanted… _had _wanted.

"I think you should go," Walter almost whispered.

"Hm?"

Walter slowly pulled himself from her lap and crawled out of the tent, Cassie eventually following. Once she was out, he moved to take the tent apart, but Cassie stopped him.

"You can keep it…" Cassie said quietly. "I think you need it."

He looked at her with what looked like a confused, hurt expression. It was obvious to Cassie that he had a lot going on in his mind, but it wasn't anything that she could really help him with. Whatever it was that he was going through, it was his fight alone.

She turned around and scooped up her books. She slowly crossed the room and opened the door, giving Walter one final look that oozed concern. He wanted so badly to hug her for trying to help… but he didn't want to risk getting close to her, or further mindfuck himself.

So, all he did was stand there and watch as one of two people in his entire life to generally care for him walked away.

Walter walked down the hallway to retrieve the crimson envelope. He stared at it for a moment and walked over to the tent. He let it slip from between his fingers with a sigh and crawled into the safety of the tent.

Rolling onto his back, he stared vacantly into space. He closed his eyes for a minute and rolled over to his side, lazily opening them to peer through the tiny opening between the sheets.

His gaze rested on the crimson envelope.

Walter definitely couldn't deal with people today.


End file.
